Men's rings-how did you choose?

So, I’m doing some searching around for my SO’s future wedding band and it’s worrying me way more than I had anticipated. I have absolutely no idea what’s a proper amount to spend, and since I’m on a budget I’m afraid it will end up looking cheap. My SO has made it clear that he wants me to choose it, and he’s given me a few suggested rings so I have an idea of what type of style he likes but ultimately the final decision is mine (as it’s sort of a trade off for him choosing my engagement ring). I know I want something in white gold and he likes the more intricate ‘art deco’ sort of look. That being said, as I search around on etsy, there’s a LOT of options, and prices ranging from $250 to $1000+. Of course I want to balance between budget and what will actually look beautiful, but again, I’m not much of a jewelry person and I don’t know how to tell if something will wind up looking cheap or not.

I guess I’m not asking for some specific advise here, but I’d love to hear how you choose the wedding band for your FI and any details you’d be willing to share (pictures would be awesome too!). Thanks!

TwinkleBoss: Everyone can go about doing this differently, but I’ll tell you the process of how my FI and I are going to choose his band. He’s paying for my wedding set, and we designed my engagement ring together so I told him whatever he pays for my set as a whole, will be his budget for his wedding ring. I thought it was only fair for us to match prices if he’s dropping a pretty penny on jewelry for me.

Some bees might drop their jaws at this, because why would you want to spend thousands on a men’s ring, but what man truly wants to spends thousands on an engagement ring?! 😛

After setting this budget, I showed him pictures on Etsy and got a feel for what he liked. He really likes red gold, tungsten, and wood inlay rings and doesn’t care much for diamonds or gemstones in general. We have rings he likes that go from $30 to $2500, and all of them will last him a lifetime and measure up in durability.

In the end, he narrowed down the list and has given me about 10 rings he really likes in all different price ranges from all different places. That way I can choose how much to spend, and I know he’ll be happy and the quality will last. 🙂

we went together to get our wedding bands. he chose his same a PP Tungsten Carbide ring. He chose it because the jewler said its the best ring any guy who works with his hands! his exact words. well not for my husband! he got his ring caught and almost had his finger ripped off. the surgen worked for 45 mins trying to cut the ring off, and had no success, the jewler forgot to say there is only 1 breaking point on the ring! so needless to say if your FI works with his hands a lot; do not get a tungsten!

peacock0320: We did a lot of similar things. My ‘set’ ended up being like, $130 total. My e-ring is a heirloom and my band came from CL *le gasp!!!* and I’m perfectly fine with it. I love how they look together!! =)

His: he wanted tungsten, I wanted diamonds in it. I wanted to be similar in price (I actually bought his first) but didn’t want either of us spending much. I ended up finding a ring on Ebay that I love, has the same amount of stones as my ering (7, a lucky number for both of us) is tungsten, and has the sparkle both of us wanted for him. =) Plus, if stones fall out, while I’ll be sad, it was at a price that I’m ok with something happening – It def won’t be the ened of the world!

biasstarfish: I have bought him three tungsten rings so far, he loves them. The first one was a tungsten carbide ring that got ruined when he tried cleaning it, something happened to the carbide part. I bought him a black tungsten right hand ring that he loves. When he bought me my engagement ring, I bought him one too that would replace the tungsten carbide one. It has a beauitful gold inlay that is etched with a celtic dragon. I love tungsten because they are so affordable and they truly are indestructible, which is great since he loves working with his hands.

He really has his eye on a black gold eternity ring embedded with emerald cut rubies though…

TwinkleBoss: My FI just kind of walked up to the window, scanned for a couple of minutes, pointed and said, “I want that one” and that was that. We’ll be ordering it later. He wanted my advice and my opinion, but I also wanted it to be his decision.

My DH was super picky. He tried on every ring in our local Zales and Kay’s, just to get a feel for what he liked. He didn’t like any of them. He did decide he wanted a gray tungsten ring. We ordered several off Amazon and he ended up loving one that cost $18. Then we bought two more in case he loses the original! My hubs likes it because of the gray color and also because it is extremely scratch resistant.

Tungsten can’t be cut off like a normal ring and it also can’t be resized. I was worried about the emergency removal issue, but it turns out that you can crush the ring with a vice or vice-grip pliers and it will crack. I asked my friend who is an ER nurse to find out what they do, and she investigated and said they have vice-grip pliers in the ER just for that, although she hasn’t seen it done personally. She did say that she has seen finger injuries from gold rings though, where someone smashes their finger in a door and the ring deforms and cuts off circulation!

We went to get ideas for my engagement ring, he ended up finding one he loved. We each paid for each other’s rings, though mine was significantly more expensive(part of that is his fault, he insisted on upgrading the diamond…. No I am not complaining!). I would at least try to get some ideas on what he likes and go from there.

We haven’t purchased his yet (not getting married for a few years), but I’m guessing it will be in the $1000-2000 range. We both like 14k or 18k gold rings that are pretty sturdy… Something along these lines:

My FI and I went to our jeweler and picked our bands together. I was a bit shocked at the price of what he chose (it was $2K) but he loves it and that’s all that matters. Plus as he says the cost doesn’t come close to my set lol.

We went shopping together but he ended up choosing though did ask for my opinion. We originally purchased the ring from a brick and mortar store but ran into trouble with the supplier so the rings (we bought two different sizes because DH has incredibly slender fingers) didn’t come in time for the wedding even though we purchased them over a month before! He ended up buying essentially the same ring on Amazon for like $20! MUCH cheaper than what the store was charging!